About this Review

After researching 100 bags and then testing 22 of them during endless workouts, we think that the Everest Gym Bag is the best bag for anyone who wants to bring fresh clothes to the gym and take sweaty clothes home again without your gear resembling a fragrant swamp. It easily carries everything most people need, like a change of shoes and fresh clothes, and has some features, such as a water bottle holder, that are hard to find in bags that cost twice as much. The Everest Gym Bag includes a deep ventilated shoe pocket, metal fasteners (instead of plastic), three spare pockets, and a lifetime warranty—exceptional features for the price.

For most gym goers, this ventilated bag offers the best balance of size, price, and brand modesty.

The Everest Gym Bag has an easy-to-access main pocket with a classic U-shaped zip top and a total of six exterior pockets: two zippered, three small open-mesh accessories holders, and a dedicated water bottle compartment. In addition, it also has a vented shoe and laundry pocket, and after days of running, heavy lifting, and swimming, that extra venting meant that we never came home with a mysterious potpourri of heinous body odors trailing behind us. It’s made of commonly used 600D polyester, which you’ll recognize if you’ve ever held a school knapsack. It’s a decent material that’s easy to wash and still able to protect contents from the usual grime of gym lockers and floors. And one advantage the Everest has over our upgrade pick: It will stand well enough upright on its own as you pack or unpack.

It only comes in one size: 8 by 11.5 by 10.5 inches or 1,950 cubic inches, a small-to-medium capacity, but that’s enough for a spare set of clothes, shoes and some light gear. It also comes in five colors. If you have extra training gear, such as boxing gloves or a heavy gi, you might want to consider our pick for sports equipment down below.

Table of contents

Why You Should Trust Us

While there are many lists, there aren’t many comprehensive gym bag reviews out there that we found trustworthy. For this article, we spoke with several professional personal trainers, the owner and clientele of a well respected body building gym, and a couple of high school coaches about their experiences with kit bags. In particular, we leaned on the experience and expertise of:

Larry Pollock, owner of KO Fitness in Ventura and one-time world record holder for the deadlift in his weight division.

Danielle Williams, fitness director of the Ojai Valley Athletic Club with 10 years of experience in health and fitness.

Dan Waldman, high school lacrosse coach at the Thatcher School, who has been playing some kind of organized sport for as long as he can remember.

I’ve been working out for nearly 15 years, practicing boxing, savate, muay thai, martial arts, and weightlifting in all manner of gyms around the world, including church basements in Scotland, garages in California, and high-end clubs in New York. I’ve used everything from plastic shopping bags to backpacks to dedicated gym bags to carry my gear around.

How We Picked and Tested

Gym bags are very similar: They tend to be made from easy-to-wipe-down 600D nylon and have one main compartment, a shoulder strap, and a smattering of small pockets or mesh compartments. They’re fine. And while no gym bag can improve your actual workout, the right one can drastically improve your time before and after your workout.

We all have specific ideas of what a gym bag should be depending on our needs and there are thousands of bags out there that would work. To clarify our search, we published a public survey to see what most people wanted from a gym bag. Respondents said their dream bag would be simple and cheap while still able to carry a lot of stuff. If possible, the ideal bag would have a dedicated shoe or laundry pocket and some small pockets for miscellaneous gear.

All of our picks meet these requirements. What separates each from the other are the small details. Our top pick and upgrade bags both use long-lasting metal fasteners for the shoulder straps, for instance, when most models we tested used plastic clasps.

After interviews with personal trainers, coaches, and gym buffs, we came up with a few other parameters. As with anything that will likely be shoved in and out of a locker, we looked for bags without elements that can easily snag such as loose mesh pockets.

Other features we think make small, but significant differences when you’re using a gym bag three times a week:

Reinforced sides, which help the bag stand up during packing.

Reinforced seams, especially where the shoulder strap attaches to the bag.

Easy to pull zippers on small pockets.

Easy to clean interior.

Unfortunately, every bag we tested needs to be hand washed. There are simply too many handles, seams, and easy to tear mesh pockets to try and put one of these into a washing machine.

Unless you’re particularly abusive to your gear, you don’t need to spend too much on a gym bag. They’ll probably spend most of their lives in a locker or in a closet. As with any bag, what will work best for you all depends on how specific your needs are. If you aren’t worried about spare pockets or isolated laundry and shoe storage, a simple duffel bag, paired with a plastic shopping bag or dry bag to contain your dirty shoes or wet towel post-workout, is all that’s necessary to bring clean clothes to a gym and sweaty clothes home again.

While there are backpacks specifically designed to be gym bags, we found these designs to be cumbersome and difficult to use for everyday use. Ultimately, for the money, it’s easier to turn a regular backpack into a gym bag than the other way around. If you would prefer a backpack that can double as a gym bag (most of them can), we’ve researched a full list of recommended backpacks here. We particularly liked the North Face Pivoter for the gym.

For most gym goers, this ventilated bag offers the best balance of size, price, and brand modesty.

If you go to the gym more than a couple of times a week, the Everest Gym Bag will serve you perfectly. It combines the durability of more expensive gym bags with some small features that were rare on other models, such as the well-vented laundry pocket and lifetime warranty. It’s the only bag we tested with a water bottle holder, which fits our top water bottle pick perfectly. However, the holder is too narrow for most shake-cups and other larger water bottles.

The Everest, similar to the other models we picked (except our upgrade pick), has a slightly rigid frame, which helps stand the bag upright as you pack it. The bag also comes with an optional removable board which fits the bottom of the back for added rigidity, sort of like a pet carrier.

The shoe pocket has a wide opening and easily fits a pair of size 11 running shoes. The pocket’s 1½-inch mesh vent should provide plenty of air circulation, to help eliminate any lingering odors or moisture. The only unavoidable complaint is how much room those shoes take up once they’re inside the bag. After weeks of testing, I often used these separate pockets to hold my laundry and carried my bulkier shoes by hand.

This bag has metal zippers, D-rings and clips, which is a significant upgrade in quality when it comes to bag construction. On the importance of metal hardware: “If you can find it, I prefer metal over plastic for these areas,” said Danielle Williams, pointing to a plastic carabiner attaching a shoulder strap to a bag. “This? I can break that, no problem. It will be the first thing to fail.” The bodybuilders of KO gym wouldn’t even look at bags with plastic carabiners: “Our gear is just too heavy.”

Despite these metal attachments, the Everest and our budget pick, the Walmart Protege, were both easily ripped from their seams by Squat World Record holder Roy Glenn. While we don’t think most people will ever put their bags through that kind of abuse, if you need a bag that will last longer both the Adidas Team Issue and Jnr Kong Bag are far better reinforced.The Everest holds about 1,950 cubic inches or 32 liters, the size of an average day pack, and measures 18 by 11.5 by 10.5 inches, which fits perfectly inside a standard gym locker.

Similar to nearly every other bag on the market, the Everest is made from 600D polyester. It’s a perfect material for gym bags: easy to clean, durable enough for light use, and very inexpensive.

After zippers, these usually-plastic connectors are the most likely component of any bag to break or get crushed. The Everest is the least expensive bag we could find that still used long lasting metal fasteners to connect the shoulder strap. The Everest, same as every bag we tested, is built around an easy to open U-shaped main compartment. It also includes a small inside pocket, two front-zippered pouches, one larger exterior zippered shoe pocket, and 3 open-top mesh accessory holders. It weighs 2 pounds, 8 ounces unpacked and comes in five colors. Although somewhat bland looking, we find it enjoyable for a gym bag, with no large or garish logos advertising your brand affiliation.

Flaws But not Dealbreakers

Several testers pointed to the water bottle holder and remarked about how difficult it was to find in any gym bag, but they wished the one on the Everest was able to carry a variety of bottles. And while the laundry pockets and a removable bottom panel increases the flexibility of a bag, they’re also the first things to obscure a lost item of clothing or gear. The Everest is no different, and its jet black interior won’t help.

Ogio Crunch Duffel: The small opening and plastic hardware knocked this out of testing fairly quickly.

Crunch time is all about pushing back that FINAL deadline. Make time work in your favor by hauling your gear in this OGIO Crunch Duffel Bag. This all-purpose gym bag comes complete with an oversized U-shape opening, ventilated side shoe pocket, and a special pocket to hold your tunes, complete with headphone port.